Meredith Farkas is a faculty librarian at Portland Community College in Oregon. From 2007-2021, she wrote the monthly column “Technology in Practice” for American Libraries. Meredith was honored in 2014 with the ACRL Instruction Section Innovation Award, in 2008 and 2011 with the WISE Excellence in Online Education Award and in 2009 with the LITA/Library Hi Tech award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology. She has been writing the blog Information Wants to be Free since 2004.
Speaking of libraries doing 2.0 things just to look cool, there is an organization that I've criticized about that in the past. I've been concerned that many of the hip,…
I have to admit that the Annoyed Librarian is one of my guilty pleasures. I love to laugh and she makes me laugh like crazy, even though she's probably insulted…
I absolutely loved Jill Stover's post about the library as a lab for creative exploration (by the way, if you don't read her blog, subscribe! It's a gem!): This "community…
When I put the survey out, I hoped to get more responses than last time. Two years ago, I got somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 responses. I've been amazed…
How can a library school teach their students to be user-focused if they model the exact opposite behaviors? Check out the assertive (and admirable) way that Jennifer tried to confront…
I read Emily Clasper's post yesterday about overachievers, underachievers and motivation and found that some of what she wrote made me very uncomfortable. I wasn't quite sure how to articulate…
In August of 2005, I conducted a survey of people in the library and information science profession who blog to get some sense of the demographic characteristics of bibliobloggers. The…
I've found a lot of great career and work-related posts over the past month or so that I've wanted to share with others. Being a librarian requires much more than…
Way to go Gary Price for getting the electronic and non-book resources libraries offer the attention they deserve in the mainstream tech media! "Steal This Book? Don't Bother": Libraries are…
When I find a post or article interesting and think I might want to comment on it, it goes into the "to blog" folder. That folder is getting pretty darn…
I had a nice, sparse, mellow speaking schedule all set for Fall, and then I got a few offers I couldn't refuse, which turned my Fall into another disaster. Add…
You're A People's History of the United States! by Howard Zinn After years of listening to other peoples' lies, you decided you've had enough. Now you're out to tell it…
Whenever I go on Twitter, it seems like Michelle is at a meeting or on her way to another meeting. It's amazing the girl gets anything done with all those…
Remember last week when I posted about wanting to teach a class on social software for library school students? Well, it looks like I may have gotten my wish. More…
Adam and I have gotten into a new show on A&E called Confessions of a Matchmaker, which follows a matchmaker in Buffalo, NY in her attempts to find love for…
Over the next week, I need to write my column for September's American Libraries magazine. I've already decided that I want to write something about libraries and Flickr, but I'm…
About a week ago, I was interviewed by Kara Jesella who was writing a story for the New York Times. She told me she was writing about how librarians are…
Oh Meredith, why can't you just write a nice, short, concise post? I really don't know what happens! I start writing and my fingers just seem to take over. This…
My book is available through Amazon! Originally uploaded by librarianmer I'm almost afraid to mention this for fear that I'll jinx it, but it looks like my book is finally…